Rendering advertisements with documents having one or more topics using user topic interest information

ABSTRACT

Ambiguities with respect to a user topic interest may be resolved so that useful topic-relevant ads can be presented. Such ambiguities may be resolved by monitoring user behavior, determining a user topic interest (e.g., from a plurality of different candidate topics) based on the monitored behavior, and serving ads relevant to the determined user topic interest.

§ 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] § 1.1 Field of the Invention

[0002] The present invention concerns advertising. In particular, thepresent invention concerns the targeted serving and rendering of ads.

[0003] §1.2 Related Art

[0004] Advertising using traditional media, such as television, radio,newspapers and magazines, is well known. Unfortunately, even when armedwith demographic studies and entirely reasonable assumptions about thetypical audience of various media outlets, advertisers recognize thatmuch of their ad budget is simply wasted. Moreover, it is very difficultto identify and eliminate such waste.

[0005] Recently, advertising over more interactive media has becomepopular. For example, as the number of people using the Internet hasexploded, advertisers have come to appreciate media and services offeredover the Internet as a potentially powerful way to advertise.

[0006] Advertisers have developed several strategies in an attempt tomaximize the value of such advertising. In one strategy, advertisers usepopular presences or means for providing interactive media or services(referred to as “Web sites” in the specification without loss ofgenerality) as conduits to reach a large audience. Using this firstapproach, an advertiser may place ads on the home page of the New YorkTimes Web site, or the USA Today Web site, for example. In anotherstrategy, an advertiser may attempt to target its ads to more narrowniche audiences, thereby increasing the likelihood of a positiveresponse by the audience. For example, an agency promoting tourism inthe Costa Rican rainforest might place ads on the ecotourism-travelsubdirectory of the Yahoo Web site. An advertiser will normallydetermine such targeting manually.

[0007] Regardless of the strategy, Web site-based ads (also referred toas “Web ads”) are typically presented to their advertising audience inthe form of “banner ads”—i.e., a rectangular box that includes graphiccomponents. When a member of the advertising audience (referred to as a“viewer” or “user” in the Specification without loss of generality)selects one of these banner ads by clicking on it, embedded hypertextlinks typically direct the viewer to the advertiser's Web site. Thisprocess, wherein the viewer selects an ad, is commonly referred to as a“click-through” (“Click-through” is intended to cover any userselection.). The ratio of the number of click-throughs to the number ofimpressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is displayed) iscommonly referred to as the “click-through rate” of the ad.

[0008] A “conversion” is said to occur when a user consummates atransaction related to a previously served ad. What constitutes aconversion may vary from case to case and can be determined in a varietyof ways. For example, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when auser clicks on an ad, is referred to the advertiser's web page, andconsummates a purchase there before leaving that web page.Alternatively, a conversion may be defined as a user being shown an ad,and making a purchase on the advertiser's web page within apredetermined time (e.g., seven days). In yet another alternative, aconversion may be defined by an advertiser to be anymeasurable/observable user action such as, for example, downloading awhite paper, navigating to at least a given depth of a Website, viewingat least a certain number of Web pages, spending at least apredetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page, etc. Often, ifuser actions don't indicate a consummated purchase, they may indicate asales lead, although user actions constituting a conversion are notlimited to this. Indeed, many other definitions of what constitutes aconversion are possible. The ratio of the number of conversions to thenumber of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad isdisplayed) is commonly referred to as the conversion rate. If aconversion is defined to be able to occur within a predetermined timesince the serving of an ad, one possible definition of the conversionrate might only consider ads that have been served more than thepredetermined time in the past.

[0009] Despite the initial promise of Web site-based advertisement,there remain several problems with existing approaches. Althoughadvertisers are able to reach a large audience, they are frequentlydissatisfied with the return on their advertisement investment.

[0010] Similarly, the hosts of Web sites on which the ads are presented(referred to as “Web site hosts” or “ad consumers”) have the challengeof maximizing ad revenue without impairing their users' experience. SomeWeb site hosts have chosen to place advertising revenues over theinterests of users. One such Web site is “Overture.com”, which hosts aso-called “search engine” service returning advertisements masqueradingas “search results” in response to user queries. The Overture.com website permits advertisers to pay to position an ad for their Web site (ora target Web site) higher up on the list of purported search results. Ifsuch schemes where the advertiser only pays if a user clicks on the ad(i.e., cost-per-click) are implemented, the advertiser lacks incentiveto target their ads effectively, since a poorly targeted ad will not beclicked and therefore will not require payment. Consequently, highcost-per-click ads show up near or at the top, but do not necessarilytranslate into real revenue for the ad publisher because viewers don'tclick on them. Furthermore, ads that viewers would click on are furtherdown the list, or not on the list at all, and so relevancy of ads iscompromised.

[0011] Search engines, such as Google for example, have enabledadvertisers to target their ads so that they will be rendered with asearch results page and so that they will be relevant, presumably, tothe query that prompted the search results page. Although search resultpages afford advertisers a great opportunity to target their ads to amore receptive audience, some queries may have alternativeinterpretations. For example, the query term “jaguar” could refer to thecar by that name, the animal by that name, the NFL football team by thatname, etc. If the user is interested in the animal, then the user mightnot be interested in search results which pertain to the car or NFLfootball team. Similarly, the user might not be interested inadvertisements, targeted to the keyword “Jaguar,” but that pertain tothe car or NFL football team. Therefore, it would be useful to resolveambiguities, such as those like the one described above, so that adspresented will more likely be of interest to the user.

[0012] Other targeted advertising systems, such as those that target adsbased on e-mail information (See, e.g., the systems described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/452,830 (incorporated herein byreference), entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS USING INFORMATIONASSOCIATED WITH E-MAIL”, filed on Jun. 2, 2003 and listing Jeffrey A.Dean, Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit); or those that target ads basedon content (See, e.g., U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900(incorporated herein by reference), entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTSBASED ON CONTENT”, filed on Feb. 26, 2003 and listing Darrell Anderson,Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R.Harik, Deepak Jindal, and Narayanan Shivakumar) may have similarchallenges. That is, advertising systems would like to presentadvertisements that are relevant to the user requested information ingeneral, and related to the current user interest in particular.

[0013] When ads are shown in association with a document (e.g., a Webpage,) it is desirable that the ads be targeted based on the topic ortopics suggested by the content of the document. Often, however, thedocument content may suggest different topics. Consequently, thetargeting of advertisements may be sub-optimal because it is not clearwhich of the applicable topics the user is currently interested in. Ingeneral, if a document has content concerning different topics, it maybe unclear which of the topics the user is most interested in at themoment. Consequently, if topic-relevant ads are to be presented, it maybe unclear which of a number of candidate topic-relevant ads would bemost useful to the user. Therefore, if a document has different topics,it would be useful to determine which of the different topics the useris most interested in at the moment so that topic-relevant ads presentedwill more likely be of interest to the user.

§ 2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0014] The present invention helps resolve ambiguities with respect to auser topic interest so that useful topic-relevant ads can be presented.The present invention may do so by tracking user behavior, determining auser topic interest (e.g., from a plurality of different candidatetopics) based on the monitored behavior, and serving ads relevant to thedetermined user topic interest.

§ 3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015]FIG. 1 is a high-level diagram showing parties or entities thatcan interact with an advertising system.

[0016]FIG. 2 illustrates an environment in which advertisers can targettheir ads on search results pages generated by a search engine,documents served by content servers, and/or e-mail.

[0017]FIG. 3 illustrates information that may be used and associated ina manner consistent with the present invention.

[0018]FIG. 4 is a bubble diagram of operations that may be performed,and information that may be generated, used, and/or stored, to generatedocument region and/or topic to ad(s) associations in a mannerconsistent with the present invention.

[0019]FIG. 5 is a bubble diagram of ad optimization operations that maybe performed, and information that may be generated, used, and/orstored, in a manner consistent with the present invention.

[0020]FIGS. 6-10 are exemplary data structures that may be generatedand/or used in a manner consistent with the present invention.

[0021]FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be usedto associate document regions and/or topics with one or more ads, in amanner consistent with the present invention.

[0022]FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method that may be usedto perform optimized client-side ad rendering, in a manner consistentwith the present invention.

[0023]FIG. 13 is a high-level block diagram of apparatus that may beused to perform at least some of the various operations that may be usedand store at least some of the information that may be used and/orgenerated in a manner consistent with the present invention.

[0024]FIGS. 14-17 are diagrams illustrating examples of operations ofexemplary embodiments of the present invention.

§ 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus,message formats and/or data structures for resolving ambiguities withrespect to a user topic interest so that useful topic-relevant ads canbe presented. The following description is presented to enable oneskilled in the art to make and use the invention, and is provided in thecontext of particular applications and their requirements. Variousmodifications to the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the general principles set forth below may beapplied to other embodiments and applications. Thus, the presentinvention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown and theinventors regard their invention as any patentable subject matterdescribed.

[0026] In the following, environments in which, or with which, thepresent invention may operate are described in § 4.1. Then, exemplaryembodiments of the present invention are described in § 4.2. Examples ofoperations are provided in § 4.3. Finally, some conclusions regardingthe present invention are set forth in § 4.4.

[0027] § 4.1 Environments in which, or with which, the Present InventionMay Operate

[0028] § 4.1.1 Exemplary Advertising Environment

[0029]FIG. 1 is a high level diagram of an advertising environment. Theenvironment may include an ad entry, maintenance and delivery system(simply referred to an ad server) 120. Advertisers 110 may directly, orindirectly, enter, maintain, and track ad information in the system 120.The ads may be in the form of graphical ads such as so-called bannerads, text only ads, image ads, audio ads, video ads, ads combining oneof more of any of such components, etc. The ads may also includeembedded information, such as a link, and/or machine executableinstructions. Ad consumers 130 may submit requests for ads to, acceptads responsive to their request from, and provide usage information to,the system 120. An entity other than an ad consumer 130 may initiate arequest for ads. Although not shown, other entities may provide usageinformation (e.g., whether or not a conversion or click-through relatedto the ad occurred) to the system 120. This usage information mayinclude measured or observed user behavior related to ads that have beenserved.

[0030] The ad server 120 may be similar to the one described in FIG. 2of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900, mentioned in § 1.2above. An advertising program may include information concerningaccounts, campaigns, creatives, targeting, etc. The term “account”relates to information for a given advertiser (e.g., a unique e-mailaddress, a password, billing information, etc.). A “campaign” or “adcampaign” refers to one or more groups of one or more advertisements,and may include a start date, an end date, budget information,geo-targeting information, syndication information, etc. For example,Honda may have one advertising campaign for its automotive line, and aseparate advertising campaign for its motorcycle line. The campaign forits automotive line have one or more ad groups, each containing one ormore ads. Each ad group may include targeting information (e.g., a setof keywords, a set of one or more topics, etc.), and price information(e.g., maximum cost (cost per click-though, cost per conversion, etc.)).Alternatively, or in addition, each ad group may include an average cost(e.g., average cost per click-through, average cost per conversion,etc.). Therefore, a single maximum cost and/or a single average cost maybe associated with one or more keywords, and/or topics. As stated, eachad group may have one or more ads or “creatives” (That is, ad contentthat is ultimately rendered to an end user.). Each ad may also include alink to a URL (e.g., a landing Web page, such as the home page of anadvertiser, or a Web page associated with a particular product orserver). Naturally, the ad information may include more or lessinformation, and may be organized in a number of different ways.

[0031]FIG. 2 illustrates an environment 200 in which the presentinvention may be used. A user device (also referred to as a “client” or“client device”) 250 may include a browser facility (such as theExplorer browser from Microsoft or the Navigator browser from AOL/TimeWarner), an e-mail facility (e.g., Outlook from Microsoft), etc. Asearch engine 220 may permit user devices 250 to search collections ofdocuments (e.g., Web pages). A content server 210 may permit userdevices 250 to access documents. An e-mail server (e.g., Hotmail fromMicrosoft Network, Yahoo Mail, etc.) 240 may be used to provide e-mailfunctionality to user devices 250. An ad server 210 may be used to serveads to user devices 250. The ads may be served in association withsearch results provided by the search engine 220, content provided bythe content server 230, and/or e-mail supported by the e-mail server 240and/or user device e-mail facilities.

[0032] Thus, one example of an ad consumer 130 is a general contentserver 230 that receives requests for documents (e.g., articles,discussion threads, music, video, graphics, search results, Web pagelistings, etc.), and retrieves the requested document in response to, orotherwise services, the request. The content server may submit a requestfor ads to the ad server 120/210. Such an ad request may include anumber of ads desired. The ad request may also include document requestinformation. This information may include the document itself (e.g.,page), a category or topic corresponding to the content of the documentor the document request (e.g., arts, business, computers, arts-movies,arts-music, etc.), part or all of the document request, content age,content type (e.g., text, graphics, video, audio, mixed media, etc.),geolocation information, document information, etc.

[0033] The content server 230 may combine the requested document withone or more of the advertisements provided by the ad server 120/210.This combined information including the document content andadvertisement(s) is then forwarded towards the end user device 250 thatrequested the document, for presentation to the user. Finally, thecontent server 230 may transmit information about the ads and how, when,and/or where the ads are to be rendered (e.g., position, click-throughor not, impression time, impression date, size, conversion or not, etc.)back to the ad server 120/210. Alternatively, or in addition, suchinformation may be provided back to the ad server 120/210 by some othermeans.

[0034] Another example of an ad consumer 130 is the search engine 220. Asearch engine 220 may receive queries for search results. In response,the search engine may retrieve relevant search results (e.g., from anindex of Web pages). An exemplary search engine is described in thearticle S. Brin and L. Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale HypertextualSearch Engine,” Seventh International World Wide Web Conference,Brisbane, Australia and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,999 (both incorporatedherein by reference). Such search results may include, for example,lists of Web page titles, snippets of text extracted from those Webpages, and hypertext links to those Web pages, and may be grouped into apredetermined number of (e.g., ten) search results.

[0035] The search engine 220 may submit a request for ads to the adserver 120/210. The request may include a number of ads desired. Thisnumber may depend on the search results, the amount of screen or pagespace occupied by the search results, the size and shape of the ads,etc. In one embodiment, the number of desired ads will be from one toten, and preferably from three to five. The request for ads may alsoinclude the query (as entered or parsed), information based on the query(such as geolocation information, whether the query came from anaffiliate and an identifier of such an affiliate), and/or informationassociated with, or based on, the search results. Such information mayinclude, for example, identifiers related to the search results (e.g.,document identifiers or “docIDs”), scores related to the search results(e.g., information retrieval (“IR”) scores such as dot products offeature vectors corresponding to a query and a document, Page Rankscores, and/or combinations of IR scores and Page Rank scores), snippetsof text extracted from identified documents (e.g., Web pages), full textof identified documents, topics of identified documents, feature vectorsof identified documents, etc.

[0036] The search engine 220 may combine the search results with one ormore of the advertisements provided by the ad server 120/210. Thiscombined information including the search results and advertisement(s)is then forwarded towards the user that submitted the search, forpresentation to the user. Preferably, the search results are maintainedas distinct from the ads, so as not to confuse the user between paidadvertisements and presumably neutral search results.

[0037] Finally, the search engine 220 may transmit information about thead and when, where, and/or how the ad was to be rendered (e.g.,position, click-through or not, impression time, impression date, size,conversion or not, etc.) back to the ad server 120/210. Alternatively,or in addition, such information may be provided back to the ad server120/210 by some other means.

[0038] As discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900(introduced in § 1.2 above), ads targeted to documents served by contentservers may also be served.

[0039] Finally, the e-mail server 240 may be thought of, generally, as acontent server in which a document served is simply an e-mail. Further,e-mail applications (such as Microsoft Outlook for example) may be usedto send and/or receive e-mail. Therefore, an e-mail server 240 orapplication may be thought of as an ad consumer 130. Thus, e-mails maybe thought of as documents, and targeted ads may be served inassociation with such documents. For example, one or more ads may beserved in, under over, or otherwise in association with an e-mail.

[0040] § 4.1.2 Definitions

[0041] Online ads, such as those used in the exemplary systems describedabove with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, or any other system, may havevarious intrinsic features. Such features may be specified by anapplication and/or an advertiser. These features are referred to as “adfeatures” below. For example, in the case of a text ad, ad features mayinclude a title line, ad text, and an embedded link. In the case of animage ad, ad features may include images, executable code, and anembedded link. Depending on the type of online ad, ad features mayinclude one or more of the following: text, a link, an audio file, avideo file, an image file, executable code, embedded information, etc.

[0042] When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be usedto describe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parametersare referred to as “serving parameters” below. Serving parameters mayinclude, for example, one or more of the following: features of(including information on) a page on which the ad was served, a searchquery or search results associated with the serving of the ad, a usercharacteristic (e.g., their geographic location, the language used bythe user, the type of browser used, previous page views, previousbehavior), a host or affiliate site (e.g., America Online, Google,Yahoo) that initiated the request, an absolute position of the ad on thepage on which it was served, a position (spatial or temporal) of the adrelative to other ads served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of thead relative to other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other adsserved, types of other ads served, time of day served, time of weekserved, time of year served, etc. Naturally, there are other servingparameters that may be used in the context of the invention.

[0043] Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features, theymay be associated with an ad as serving conditions or constraints. Whenused as serving conditions or constraints, such serving parameters arereferred to simply as “serving constraints” (or “targeting criteria”).For example, in some systems, an advertiser may be able to target theserving of its ad by specifying that it is only to be served onweekdays, no lower than a certain position, only to users in a certainlocation, etc. As another example, in some systems, an advertiser mayspecify that its ad is to be served only if a page or search queryincludes certain keywords or phrases, though, as alluded to above, thepresent invention obviates the need for an advertiser to enter targetingkeywords. As yet another example, in some systems, an advertiser mayspecify that its ad is to be served only if a document being servedincludes certain topics or concepts, or falls under a particular clusteror clusters, or some other classification or classifications.

[0044] “Ad information” may include any combination of ad features, adserving constraints, information derivable from ad features or adserving constraints (referred to as “ad derived information”), and/orinformation related to the ad (referred to as “ad related information”),as well as an extension of such information (e.g., information derivedfrom ad related information).

[0045] A “document” is to be broadly interpreted to include anymachine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may be afile, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links toother files, etc.; the files may be of any type, such as text, audio,image, video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered to an end user canbe thought of as “content” of the document. A document may include“structured data” containing both content (words, pictures, etc.) andsome indication of the meaning of that content (for example, e-mailfields and associated data, HTML tags and associated data, etc.) Adspots in the document may be defined by embedded information orinstructions. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a Webpage. Web pages often include content and may include embeddedinformation (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embeddedinstructions (such as Javascript, etc.). In many cases, a document has aunique, addressable, storage location and can therefore be uniquelyidentified by this addressable location. A universal resource locator(URL) is a unique address used to access information on the Internet.

[0046] “Document information” may include any information included inthe document, information derivable from information included in thedocument (referred to as “document derived information”), and/orinformation related to the document (referred to as “document relatedinformation”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of documentderived information is a classification based on textual content of adocument. Examples of document related information include documentinformation from other documents with links to the instant document, aswell as document information from other documents to which the instantdocument links.

[0047] Content from a document may be rendered on a “content renderingapplication or device”. Examples of content rendering applicationsinclude an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer or Netscape), a media player(e.g., an MP3 player, a Realnetworks streaming audio file player, etc.),a viewer (e.g., an Abobe Acrobat pdf reader), etc.

[0048] A “content owner” is a person or entity that has some propertyright in the content of a document. A content owner may be an author ofthe content. In addition, or alternatively, a content owner may haverights to reproduce the content, rights to prepare derivative works ofthe content, rights to display or perform the content publicly, and/orother proscribed rights in the content. Although a content server mightbe a content owner in the content of the documents it serves, this isnot necessary.

[0049] “User information” may include user behavior information and/oruser profile information, such as that described in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/452,791, entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTS USINGUSER REQUEST INFORMATION AND USER INFORMATION,” filed on the Jun. 2,2003, and listing Steve Lawrence, Mehran Sahami and Amit Singhal asinventors. This application is incorporated herein by reference.

[0050] “E-mail information” may include any information included in ane-mail (also referred to as “internal e-mail information”), informationderivable from information included in the e-mail and/or informationrelated to the e-mail, as well as extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of informationderived from e-mail information is information extracted or otherwisederived from search results returned in response to a search querycomposed of terms extracted from an e-mail subject line. Examples ofinformation related to e-mail information include e-mail informationabout one or more other e-mails sent by the same sender of a givene-mail, or user information about an e-mail recipient. Informationderived from or related to e-mail information may be referred to as“external e-mail information.”

[0051] Various exemplary embodiments of the present invention are nowdescribed in § 4.2.

[0052] § 4.2 Exemplary Embodiments

[0053] As shown in FIG. 3, the present invention teaches twofeatures—document region (or topic) to ad(s) association 310, andtopic-relevant ad optimization 320 using such associations 310. Thefirst feature is described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6, whilethe second feature is described below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 7.Still referring to FIG. 3, for each of one or more document regions, oneor more topics are determined. For each of the one or more topics, a setone or more topic-relevant ads are determined. These associationsbetween document regions, topics and ads 310 may be predetermined if thedocument content is relatively static. As indicated by 320, at the userdevice (client), user behavior is monitored and user interest in adocument region (and therefore a topic) is determined using such userbehavior. These associations between user interests and topics may bedetermined in real time. Scores of topic-relevant ads may be adjustedusing determined user topic interest.

[0054] As used in this description, the term “document region” is to bebroadly construed as a part of a document. For example, a documentregion may include a spatial portion (e.g., a box, a column, an image,etc.), a section of a Web page, a temporal (e.g., audio and/or video)segment, a link, etc. The term “topic” is to be broadly construed as aconcept, subject, or theme. The term “user behavior” is to include anyobservable or measurable user interaction with a document. Examples ofuser behavior include (a) cursor positioning, (b) cursor dwell time, (c)document item (e.g., link, control button, etc.) selection, (d) user eyedirection relative to the document, (e) user facial expressions, (f)user expressions, and/or (g) express user input (e.g., increasing thevolume of an audio segment), etc. User behavior could be used to infertopic interest or disinterest. For example, if an action was immediatelyreversed, then it may be interpreted as evidence of disinterest.Suppose, for example, the user clicked on a hyperlink, visited a Webpage and immediately returned. This sequence of user actions might implythat the user was not interested in a topic or topics included in theWeb page. As another example, if an ad made available to the user wasnot selected while it was being rendered for a certain duration, thismight imply that the user was not interested in a topic or topicsassociated with the ad.

[0055]FIG. 4 is a bubble diagram of operations that may be performed,and information that may be generated, used, and/or stored, to generatedocument region and/or topic to ad(s) associations in a mannerconsistent with the present invention. Region/topic to ad(s) associationoperations 420 may include region topic determination operations 430 andtopic-relevant ad determination operations 450. A document (e.g., a Webpage) 410 may have more than one region, and different regions mayconcern different topics. The document 410 itself, or the regions of thedocument 415, may be provided to the region topic determinationoperations 430. The region topic determination operations determine atleast one topic of each of one or more regions 440. Various ways ofdetermining topics from content are known. See, for example, U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/413,536 (incorporated hereinby reference), entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANTADVERTISEMENTS”, filed on Sep. 24, 2002, and listing Jeffrey A. Dean,Georges R. Harik and Paul Bucheit as inventors; U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/314,427 (incorporated herein by reference), entitled“METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR SERVING RELEVANT ADVERTISEMENTS”, filed onDec. 6, 2002 and listing Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R. Harik and PaulBucheit as inventors; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/375,900(incorporated herein by reference), entitled “SERVING ADVERTISEMENTSBASED ON CONTENT”, filed on Feb. 26, 2003, listing Darrell Anderson,Paul Bucheit, Alex Carobus, Claire Cui, Jeffrey A. Dean, Georges R.Harik, Deepak Jindal, and Narayanan Shivakumar as inventors. Thisdetermined information 440 is then provided to topic-relevant addetermination operations 450 which use it 440, along with ad information460 (which may include topic targeting), to determine, as an output 470,(i) a mapping of each of a number of topics and/or regions to one ormore ads 480, and (ii) a mapping of each of one or more ads to an adinterest score 490. Exemplary region and/or topic to ad associationoperations 420 are described in § 4.2.1 below.

[0056]FIG. 5 is a bubble diagram of (e.g., client-side) ad optimizationoperations that may be performed, and information that may be generated,used, and/or stored, in a manner consistent with the present invention.Ad optimization operations 510 may include document (e.g., Web page) andad combination operations 520, user behavior monitoring and userinterest determination operations 540, ad interest score adjustmentoperations 550 and score adjustment policies 560. Basically, thedocument/ad combination operations 520 may select at least one of theads 490′, using at least their respective ad interest scores, andprovide the selected ad(s), along with the document (e.g., Web page)410′ to rendering operations 530 for presentation to the user.

[0057] Initially, the document 410′ may be rendered in association withan initial set of one or more ads (e.g., before attempting to resolveany ambiguities in the user's present interest). However, as statedabove, the present invention may be used to resolve ambiguities todetermine a user's present topic interest, such that ads relevant to theuser's present topic interest may be served. In this regard, userbehavior monitoring and user interest determination operations 540 maybe used to (i) monitor user behavior (e.g., with respect to the document410′), and (ii) to determine the user's present interest (e.g., toresolve ambiguities about which of a number of different topics the useris presently interested in) using at least the observed user behavior.The ad interest score adjustment operations 550 may use suchdeterminations about the user's present topic interest to adjust adinterest scores of one or more ads 490′, in accordance with policies560. Since, as described above, the document/ad combination operations520 may use such scores 490′ in determining which ads to serve with thedocument 410′, adjusting the ad interest scores 490′ may lead to changesin the ads presented in association with the document 410′. In this way,as user topic interests are discerned using their behavior, ads morerelevant to a user's present topic interest may be presented to theuser.

[0058]FIGS. 6-10 are exemplary data structures that may be used in amanner consistent with the present invention. For example, referringback to FIG. 4, an association or mapping of document topics and/ordocument regions to ads 480 may be generated. FIG. 6 is an exemplarytable data structure 480′ which includes entries, each entry including adocument region identifier 610 and one or more associated ads 620.Referring back to FIG. 4, an association or mapping of ads to adinterest scores 490 may be generated. FIG. 7 is an exemplary table datastructure 490′ which includes entries, each entry including an ad (or adidentifier) 710 and an associated ad interest score 720.

[0059]FIGS. 8-10 illustrate alternative data structures to those ofFIGS. 6 and 7. Instead of providing a region-ad table 480′ in which amapping between regions of the document (e.g., Web page) and one or moreads is maintained, a region-topic table 800 shown in FIG. 8, whichstores mappings between document regions 810 and topics 820, isprovided. Correspondingly, as shown in FIG. 9, a topic-interest scoretable 900, which stores mappings between topics 910 and interest scores920, is maintained. As shown in FIG. 10, a further table 1000 storesmappings between topics 1010 and one or more ads 1020 (e.g., on aper-document basis). A database “join” allows an ad-interest score table(such as the one 490′ illustrated in FIG. 7) to be recovered from thetopic-interest score table 900 and the topic-ads table 1000 whenever itis needed. Since the topic-interest score table 900 is more general thanthe ad-interest score table 490′, it can be used, advantageously, withmany documents. Thus, interest scores gathered for one document (e.g.,one search results Web page) can be used to show topic-relevant ads on asubsequent document, thereby increasing the scope and usefulness of thepresent invention.

[0060]FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1100 that may beused to associate document topics/regions with one or more ads, in amanner consistent with the present invention. This method 1100 may beperformed by an ad server for example. The document (e.g., Web page)regions are analyzed to determine topics. (Step 1110) Different regionsof the document may be defined by links, section tags, etc., forexample. Document regions/topics can be defined using known “topicdetection” techniques, such as statistical text analysis. (See, e.g.,Doug Beeferman, Adam Berger, John Lafferty, “Statistical Models for TextSegmentation”, at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/˜aberger/pdf/ml.pdf, and Jay MPonte and W. Bruce Croft, “Text Segmentation by Topic,” athttp://ciir.cs.umass.edu/pubfiles/ir-103.pdf, both incorporated hereinby reference.) If the document region is a document section, content ofthe section may be analyzed to determine a topic. If the document regionis a link, the document linked to may be analyzed to determine a topic.If document regions and/or region topics have already been determined,such predetermined information may simply be accepted. Then, for eachdetermined topic, one or more acts are performed. (Loop 1120-1150) Forexample, for each topic, a set of topic-relevant ads is selected (Block1130) and document regions are mapped to the sets of topic relevant ads(Block 1140). Finally, region to ad(s) mappings and ad to ad scoremappings are provided, in association with the document, to the clientdevice that requested the document (Block 1160) before the method 1100is left (Node 1170). These mappings, together with the document, may bereferred to as an “optimizable document.”

[0061]FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 1200 that may beused to perform optimized client-side ad rendering, in a mannerconsistent with the present invention. This method 1200 may be performedby a client device that requested the document (e.g., a Web page such asa search result page for example). An optimizable document is loaded.(Block 1210) An initial set of ads may then be rendered in associationwith the document. (Block 1220) The initial set of ads may be determinedusing, at least, their interest scores for example. User activity ismonitored. (Block 1230) Other information such as ad performanceinformation, price information, and/or advertiser information may beused in this determination. Generally, user activity that may be used todetermine a user interest is monitored. For example, activity in aparticular region of a document may be used to infer user topic interestand/or a user selection may be used to express a user topic interest inthe topic associated with that region.

[0062] Certain user activities may be events that trigger furtherprocessing. (Block 1240) For example, if the user activity indicates a“close” event, the method 1200 may be left. (Node 1299) If the useractivity is related to user interest in a certain topic, user topicinterest may be determined and/or recorded. (Block 1250) Then, thescore(s) of the ad(s) associated with the topic may be adjusted using,at least, the determined user topic interest. (Block 1260) Then, whetheror not a different set of ads should be rendered in association with thedocument using at least the adjusted score(s) of the ad(s) (and possiblyprevious ad scores) may be determined in accordance with a policy.(1270). If it was determined to update the ads (Decision block 1280), anew set of one or more ads is rendered in association with the document(Block 1290) and user activity monitoring is continued (Block 1230). If,on the other hand, it was not determined to update the ads (Decisionblock 1280), user activity monitoring is continued (Block 1230). § 4.2.1Exemplary Techniques for Associating a Region with a Set of One or MoreTopic Relevant Ads

[0063] Recall from block 1110 of FIG. 11 that document regions areanalyzed to determine a related topic. Topics may be determined fromdocuments by analyzing their content. For example, U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Serial No. 60/413,536 and U.S. patent applicationSer. Nos. 10/314,427 and 10/375,900, as mentioned in § 4.2, describedways to determine one or more topics.

[0064] Document regions can be accepted. Alternatively, or in addition,the present invention may be used to determine document regions. Forexample, meta data and/or structured data can define different documentsections (or regions), each having different content. The differentcontent of different sections may concern different topics, thedifferent topics being associated with different sets of one or moreads. Accordingly, if user interest in a particular section of thedocument is inferred (e.g., by the user hovering a pointer cursor overthe section, centering the section on a display, highlighting thesection, etc.), interest scores for ads of the set of one or more adsassociated with the topic of the particular section may be increased. Alink such as a hyper-text link may define a region. The linked documentmay concern a topic being associated with a set of one or more ads.Accordingly, if user interest in the link is inferred (e.g., by the userselecting it), interest scores of the set of one or more ads associatedwith the topic of the linked document may be increased.

[0065] In the context of Web pages, the HTML of the Web page beingtransferred may be modified so that user activity with respect to theWeb page can be monitored. In one implementation of the presentinvention, this is done by providing javascript code in the Web pagethat is provided to the user device (client). In this way, various useractivities can be monitored and user interests can be determined usingat least the monitored activities. For example, if a pointer enters acertain HTML region then it may be inferred that the user is interestedin the contents of the region.

[0066] § 4.2.2 Exemplary Techniques for Client-Side Ad Optimization

[0067] Recall from blocks 1230, 1240 and 1250 of FIG. 12 that useractivity is monitored and user interest is determined and/or recordedusing at least the monitored activity.

[0068] Recall from block 1260 that score(s) of one or more ads may beadjusted using at least the user interest. For example, if the region-adtable has an association between the region and an ad, then thead-interest of the ad is adjusted. An ad interest score may be adjustedby various amounts corresponding to various degrees of user interest(e.g., from casual interest to intense interest) and various confidencelevels associated with user interest (e.g., from inferred interest toexpress interest). For example, if a cursor hovers over a given regionconcerning a given topic (casual interest inferred), ad interest scoresof one or more ads associated with this topic may be incremented by afirst amount (e.g., 1 unit). If the user selects a link to a documentconcerning a topic (express interest), ad interest scores of one or moreads associated with the topic may be incremented by a second amount(e.g., 5 units). If the pointer cursor stays within a given region for aconsiderable length of time (interest inferred), then the interestscores of corresponding ads may be incremented again (e.g., by 3 units).If a section of text is blocked and “copied” (strong express interest),then the interest scores of corresponding ads may be incremented (e.g.,by 10 units).

[0069] Recall from blocks 1270, 1280 and 1290 that a new set of ads maybe rendered (or the same or different ads may be rendered with differentenhanced features and/or in a different order) in association with thedocument using the adjusted ad scores and a policy. In one example, thepolicy may be that if the ad-interest scores of the ads deviatesignificantly from the predicted interest scores of the ads, then therendering of the ads is changed to reflect the user's interest. Forexample, an old ad may be replaced with a new one.

[0070] § 4.2.3 Refinements and Alternatives

[0071] A number of alternatives exist for monitoring user activity andchanging the rendering of ads. For example, software on the clientdevice or an extension to the browser can record activity and change adisplay through the supported programming interface. In the oneimplementation of the present invention, the monitoring of usage andredrawing of the ads is done by Javascript in the client HTML insertedspecifically for ad optimization before the Web page was sent to theclient device. In one implementation of the present invention, thead-interest scores known to the Javascript code are additionally savedin a cookie which is a persistent means of storage on the clientcomputer. This allows the (e.g., ad and/or topic) interest scores to berecovered after a user browses over a hyperlink to a target document andreturns to the original page.

[0072] In a variant of the above scheme, the region-ad table, whichstores a mapping between regions of the document and ads is replacedwith a region-topic table which stores a mapping between regions of theWeb page and topics. Correspondingly a topic-interest table of scores ismaintained. A second table records the mapping between topics and ads(e.g., on a per-page basis). A database join allows the ad-interesttable to be recovered from these ad-topic and topic-interest tableswhenever it is needed. The advantage of this scheme is that thetopic-interest table is more general than the ad-interest table and canapply to many documents. Thus, interest scores gathered on one document(e.g., one search results page) can be used to show ads on a subsequentdocument where ads for the same topics exist. This increases the scopeand usefulness of the present invention. Generally, any technique thatdetermines topic-relevant ads to render or enhance using user topicinterest (which may be determined using user behavior) may be used.

[0073] In another variant all user behavior tracking and ad insertioncan be done by software residing on the client device (e.g., the GoogleToolbar).

[0074] Ad scores may be used instead of ad interest scores. Such scoresmay reflect a user topic interest, but may also reflect one of more of(a) ad price information, (b) ad performance information, (c) targetingcriteria match information, and (d) advertiser quality information.

[0075] Although the foregoing exemplary embodiments described a topicthat a user has a present interest in, the present invention is alsoapplicable to subtopics. For example, recall that the term “jaguar” canhave three interpretations—automobile, animal, an football team—and thata set of ads can be associated with each corresponding topic.Alternatively, or in addition, there can be subtopics of the same topicthat are worth distinguishing for the purpose of targeting ads. Forexample, for the topic “flowers” there can be the subtopics “buyingflowers,” “growing flowers” and “arranging flowers.” There can bedifferent sets of one or more ads associated with one or more of thesesubtopics.

[0076] Further, a given topic might be divided based on degrees ofexpertise or sophistication. For example, a user interested in the topic“volcano” could be interested in a basic introduction to volcanoes (anovice), a technical understanding of volcanoes (an expert), or beinterested in a tourism information regarding volcanoes (somesophistication). Different sets of one or more ads can be associatedwith the different levels of user expertise in a give topic. Usingevidence of sophistication determined using user actions for example,ads targeted for novices, average sophistication, or experts (e.g.,children, tourists, scientists) may be served and rendered.

[0077] § 4.2.5 Exemplary Apparatus

[0078]FIG. 13 is high-level block diagram of a machine 1300 that mayeffect one or more of the operations discussed above. The machine 1300basically includes one or more processors 1310, one or more input/outputinterface units 1330, one or more storage devices 1320, and one or moresystem buses and/or networks 1340 for facilitating the communication ofinformation among the coupled elements. One or more input devices 1332and one or more output devices 1334 may be coupled with the one or moreinput/output interfaces 1330.

[0079] The one or more processors 1310 may execute machine-executableinstructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating systemavailable from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or the Linuxoperating system widely available from a number of vendors such as RedHat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to effect one or more aspects of the presentinvention. At least a portion of the machine executable instructions maybe stored (temporarily or more permanently) on the one or more storagedevices 1320 and/or may be received from an external source via one ormore input interface units 1330.

[0080] In one embodiment, the machine 1300 may be one or moreconventional personal computers. In this case, the processing units 1310may be one or more microprocessors. The bus 1340 may include a systembus. The storage devices 1320 may include system memory, such as readonly memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM). The storage devices1320 may also include a hard disk drive for reading from and writing toa hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a(e.g., removable) magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive for readingfrom or writing to a removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compactdisk or other (magneto-) optical media.

[0081] A user may enter commands and information into the personalcomputer through input devices 1332, such as a keyboard and pointingdevice (e.g., a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as amicrophone, a joystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or thelike, may also (or alternatively) be included. These and other inputdevices are often connected to the processing unit(s) 1310 through anappropriate interface 1330 coupled to the system bus 1340. The outputdevices 1334 may include a monitor or other type of display device,which may also be connected to the system bus 1340 via an appropriateinterface. In addition to (or instead of) the monitor, the personalcomputer may include other (peripheral) output devices (not shown), suchas speakers and printers for example.

[0082] Operations of an ad server 210, such as the region/topic to ad(s)association operations 410 and/or user device (client) operations suchas the ad optimization and operations 510 may be performed by, and thevarious information may be stored on, one or more machines 1300. Theuser device (client) 250, search engine 220, content server 230, and/ore-mail server 240 may also be one or more machines 1300.

[0083] § 4.3 Examples of Operations

[0084]FIG. 14 illustrates a document region to topic mapping fordocuments such as Web pages in general. In this example 1400, a document1410 is a Web page including content 1412, links 1414 to other documents1420, 1430, 1440 and one or more ad spots 1416. The content 1412 maysuggest a first topic (topic 1). Linked document B 1420 may includecontent 1422 that suggests another topic (topic 2). Similarly, linkeddocument C 1430 may include content 1432 that suggests yet another topic(topic 3). Finally, linked document D 1440 may include content 1442 thatsuggests the first topic (topic 1).

[0085] In this example, one or more ads associated with topic 1 mightoriginally be rendered in association with the document 1410. If a userwere to follow the link 1414 a, interest scores of one or more adsassociated with topic 2 could be increased. In this case, upon returningback to document A 1410 from document B 1420, one or more ads associatedwith topic 2 might now be rendered in association with the document1410. Similarly, if a user were to follow the link 1414 b, interestscores of one or more ads associated with topic 3 could be increased. Inthis case, upon returning back to document A 1410 from document C 1430,one or more ads associated with topic 3 might now be rendered inassociation with the document 1410. Finally, if a user were to followthe link 1414 c, interest scores of the one or more ads alreadyassociated with topic 1 could be increased, further increasing aninterest score differential between theses ad(s) and ad(s) associatedwith other topics.

[0086]FIG. 15 illustrates a document 1520 including search results 1525returned in response to the search query “jaguar” 1510. In this example,the search results 1525 include links to documents relevant to the query1510. These linked documents can be analyzed, in real-time or inadvance, to determine a topic. As shown, search results 1 1525 a, 4 1525d and 5 1525 e are linked to documents concerning the animal jaguar.This first topic 1540 a is associated with a first set of one or moreads 1545 a relevant to the first topic. Search results 2 1525 b, 6 1525f, 7 1525 g and 9 1525 i are linked to documents concerning the carjaguar. This second topic 1540 b is associated with a set of one or moreads 1545 b relevant to the second topic. Finally, search results 3 1525c, 8 1525 h and 10 1525 j are linked to documents concerning the NFLteam, the jaguars. This third topic 1540 c is associated with a set ofone or more ads 1545 c relevant to the third topic. Recall from FIG. 6that a table that maps regions (e.g., content sections within a table,or specific hyperlinks, etc.) of the document (e.g., a Web page) to aset of one or more ads may be generated. Such a “region-ad” table may beused to (i) map search results 1, 4 and 5 to ad set 1 1545 a, (ii) mapsearch results 2, 6, 7 and 9 to ad set 2 1545 b, and (iii) map searchresults 3, 8 and 10 to ad set 3 1545 c. Recall from FIG. 7 that aninterest score may be computed for each ad. This information may bestored in an “ad-interest” table. These tables are transmitted to theclient in conjunction with the search results Web page 1520. In oneimplementation, the tables are embedded within Javascript code which ispart of the Web page 1520 being transmitted.

[0087] Referring to FIG. 16, when the optimized Web page 1520′ is loadedinto the client device, an initial ad or arrangement of ads 1610 ispresented based on ad interest scores. Then, client device user activityis monitored and interest in regions that suggest a certain topic, andtherefore a certain set of one or more ads, is recorded. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 16, the user selects (e.g., clicks on) search resulteight 1525 h and is taken to that page 1620 by a browser for example.Since the eighth search result 1525 h is associated with a Web page thathas a topic concerning the NFL football team, 1540 c, the interestscores of one or more ads of a third set are incremented. If the userthen returns back to the search results Web page 1520″, one or more ads1630 from the third set 1630 have replaced the initial set of one ormore ads 1610 (assuming that their incremented scores are greater thanthose of the ads originally presented).

[0088] Naturally, a position ranking or some enhanced feature of the adsmay be changed based on the updated ad interest scores. For example, asshown in FIG. 17, in the search results Web page 1520′, initially, an adfrom a first set associated with a first topic is displayed above an adfrom a third set associated with the third topic as shown by 1710. Afterthe ad interest scores of the one or more ads of the third set areincreased because the user selected the link to the eighth page 1720,when the user returns to the search results Web page 1520″, the ad formthe third set associated with the third topic is displayed above the adfrom the first set associated with the first topic as shown by 1730(assuming that their incremented scores are greater than those of theads originally presented).

[0089] In other implementations, the application of enhanced ad featuresmay be determined using at least the ad interest score.

§ 4.4 CONCLUSIONS

[0090] As can be appreciated from the foregoing disclosure, the presentinvention can be used to resolve ambiguities with respect to a usertopic interest so that useful topic-relevant ads may be presented to theuser.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for generating a document withoptimizable topic-relevant ads, the method comprising: a) for each of anumber of document regions, determining a topic; and b) using at leastthe determined topics, associating a set of one or more topic-relevantads with each of the document regions.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereineach of the ads of each of the sets of one or more topic relevant adsincludes a score, and wherein an initial set of ads to be rendered inassociation with the document is determined using at least the scores ofthe ads.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein the scores are interestscores.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: c) storing a firstset of mappings, each associating a document region and a topic; d)storing a second set of mappings, each associating a topic and a topicinterest score; and e) storing a third set of mappings, each associatinga topic and one or more topic-relevant ads.
 5. The method of claim 1further comprising: c) storing a first set of mappings, each associatinga document region and a set of one or more ads, wherein each documentregion is associated with a topic and its associated set of one or moreads are relevant to the topic.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein thedocument regions are defined as links to other documents.
 7. The methodof claim 1 wherein the document regions are defined by meta data.
 8. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the document regions are defined by at leastone of (a) a defined section, (b) a defined column, and (c) a definedbox.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein the document regions are definedusing statistical text analysis.
 10. The method of claim 2 furthercomprising: c) determining a user topic interest; d) adjusting thescores of the ads using at least the determined user topic interest; ande) rendering an updated set of ads in association with the documentusing at least the adjusted scores.
 11. The method of claim 10 wherein auser topic interest is determined using at least monitored user actionswith respect to the document.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein useractions monitored are selected from a group of user actions consistingof (a) cursor positioning, (b) cursor dwell time, (c) document itemselection, (d) user eye direction, (e) user facial expressions, (f) userexpressions, and (g) express user topic interest input.
 13. The methodof claim 11 wherein activity in a particular region of a document isused to infer user topic interest in the topic associated with thatregion.
 14. The method of claim 11 wherein a user selection is used toexpress a user topic interest in the topic associated with the regionassociated with the selection.
 15. The method of claim 11 wherein anamount by which scores of ads are adjusted is determined using, atleast, a confidence level that an observed monitored user actionindicates a user topic interest.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein anamount by which scores of ads are adjusted is greater for express usertopic interest than inferred user topic interest.
 17. The method ofclaim 11 wherein an amount by which scores of ads are adjusted isdetermined using, at least, a degree of user topic interest indicated byan observed monitored user action.
 18. The method of claim 10 whereindetermining a user topic interest includes determining user disinterestin a topic using user actions.
 19. The method of claim 18 wherein userdisinterest in a topic is determined if a user selects a link, isbrought to a Web page and returns back shortly.
 20. A method comprising:a) accepting a document with different regions corresponding todifferent topics; b) accepting, for each of the different topics, a setof one or more topic-relevant ads, each having a score; c) determining auser topic interest; d) adjusting the scores of at least some of the adsusing at least the determined user topic interest; and e) rendering oneor more of the ads in association with the document using at least theadjusted scores.
 21. The method of claim 20 wherein a user topicinterest is determined using monitored user actions with respect to thedocument.
 22. The method of claim 21 wherein user actions monitored areselected from a group of user actions consisting of (a) cursorpositioning, (b) cursor dwell time, (c) document item selection, (d)user eye direction, (e) user facial expressions, (f) user expressions,and (g) express user topic interest input.
 23. The method of claim 21wherein activity in a particular region of a document is used to inferuser topic interest in the topic associated with that region.
 24. Themethod of claim 21 wherein a user selection is used to express a usertopic interest in the topic associated with the region associated withthe selection.
 25. The method of claim 21 wherein an amount by whichscores of ads are adjusted is determined using, at least, a confidencelevel that an observed monitored user action indicates a user topicinterest.
 26. The method of claim 25 wherein an amount by which scoresof ads are adjusted is greater for express user topic interest thaninferred user topic interest.
 27. The method of claim 21 wherein anamount by which scores of ads are adjusted is determined using, atleast, a degree of user topic interest indicated by an observedmonitored user action.
 28. A method comprising: a) accepting a documentwith different regions corresponding to different topics; b) accepting,for each of the different topics, a set of one or more topic-relevantads, each having a score; c) determining a user topic interest; d)adjusting the scores of at least some of the ads using at least thedetermined user topic interest; e) determining whether or not to applyat least one enhanced feature to one or more of the ads using at leastthe adjusted scores; and f) rendering one or more of the ads inassociation with the document.
 29. The method of claim 28 wherein a usertopic interest is determined using monitored user actions with respectto the document.
 30. The method of claim 29 wherein user actionsmonitored are selected from a group of user actions consisting of (a)cursor positioning, (b) cursor dwell time, (c) document item selection,(d) user eye direction, (e) user facial expressions, (f) userexpressions, and (g) express user topic interest input.
 31. The methodof claim 29 wherein activity in a particular region of a document isused to infer user topic interest in the topic associated with thatregion.
 32. The method of claim 20 wherein a user selection is used toexpress a user topic interest in the topic associated with the regionassociated with the selection.
 33. The method of claim 20 wherein anamount by which scores of ads are adjusted is determined using, atleast, a confidence level that an observed monitored user actionindicates a user topic interest.
 34. The method of claim 33 wherein anamount by which scores of ads are adjusted is greater for express usertopic interest than inferred user topic interest.
 35. The method ofclaim 29 wherein an amount by which scores of ads are adjusted isdetermined using, at least, a degree of user topic interest indicated byan observed monitored user action.
 36. A method comprising: a) providinga document with content concerning a first topic and at least one linkto another document with content concerning a second topic; b) renderingthe document with ads relevant to the first topic; c) if a user selectsthe link and returns to the document, rendering the document with adsrelevant to the second topic.
 37. The method of claim 36 wherein thedocument is Web page and the link is a hypertext link.
 38. A methodcomprising: a) providing a document with a first search resultassociated with a first document having content concerning a first topicand a second search result associated with a second document havingcontent concerning a second topic; b) determining which of the firsttopic and the second topic a user is most interested in; c) selectingone of a first set of one or more ads relevant to the first topic and asecond set of one or more ads relevant to the second topic using, atleast the determination of user topic interest; and d) rendering, inassociation with the document, the selected one of the first and secondset of one or more ads.
 39. The method of claim 38 wherein the act ofdetermining user topic interest includes monitoring user behavior withrespect to the document.
 40. The method of claim 38 wherein the act ofdetermining user topic interest includes monitoring user behavior withrespect to the first and second search results.
 41. The method of claim40 wherein if the user selects one of the first and second searchresults, then determining that the user is interested in a correspondingone of the first and second topics.
 42. A method comprising: a)providing a document with a first search result associated with a firstdocument having content concerning a first topic and a second searchresult associated with a second document having content concerning asecond topic; b) determining which of the first topic and the secondtopic a user is most interested in; c) adjusting scores of one of afirst set of one or more ads relevant to the first topic and a secondset of one or more ads relevant to the second topic using, at least thedetermination of user topic interest; and d) rendering, in associationwith the document, one or more ads using at least the adjusted scores.43. The method of claim 42 wherein the act of determining user topicinterest includes monitoring user behavior with respect to the document.44. The method of claim 43 wherein the act of determining user topicinterest includes monitoring user behavior with respect to the first andsecond search results.
 45. The method of claim 44 wherein if the userselects one of the first and second search results, then determiningthat the user is interested in a corresponding one of the first andsecond topics.
 46. Apparatus for generating a document with optimizabletopic-relevant ads, the apparatus comprising: a) means for determining atopic for each of a number of document regions; and b) means forassociating a set of one or more topic-relevant ads with each of thedocument regions using at least the determined topics.
 47. The apparatusof claim 46 wherein each of the ads of each of the sets of one or moretopic relevant ads includes a score, and wherein an initial set of adsto be rendered in association with the document is determined using atleast the scores of the ads.
 48. The apparatus of claim 47 wherein thescores are interest scores.
 49. The apparatus of claim 46 furthercomprising: c) a storage device for storing 1) a first set of mappings,each associating a document region and a topic, 2) a second set ofmappings, each associating a topic and a topic interest score, and 3) athird set of mappings, each associating a topic and one or moretopic-relevant ads.
 50. The apparatus of claim 46 further comprising: c)a storage device for storing a first set of mappings, each associating adocument region and a set of one or more ads, wherein each documentregion is associated with a topic and its associated set of one or moreads are relevant to the topic.
 51. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein thedocument regions are defined as links to other documents.
 52. Theapparatus of claim 46 wherein the document regions are defined by metadata.
 53. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein the document regions aredefined by at least one of (a) a defined section, (b) a defined column,and (c) a defined box.
 54. The apparatus of claim 46 wherein thedocument regions are defined using statistical text analysis.
 55. Theapparatus of claim 47 further comprising: c) means for determining auser topic interest; d) means for adjusting the scores of the ads usingat least the determined user topic interest; and e) means for renderingan updated set of ads in association with the document using at leastthe adjusted scores.
 56. The apparatus of claim 45 wherein a user topicinterest is determined using at least monitored user actions withrespect to the document.
 57. The apparatus of claim 56 wherein useractions monitored are selected from a group of user actions consistingof (a) cursor positioning, (b) cursor dwell time, (c) document itemselection, (d) user eye direction, (e) user facial expressions, (f) userexpressions, and (g) express user topic interest input.
 58. Theapparatus of claim 56 wherein activity in a particular region of adocument is used to infer user topic interest in the topic associatedwith that region.
 59. The apparatus of claim 56 wherein a user selectionis used to express a user topic interest in the topic associated withthe region associated with the selection.
 60. The apparatus of claim 56wherein an amount by which scores of ads are adjusted is determinedusing, at least, a confidence level that an observed monitored useraction indicates a user topic interest.
 61. The apparatus of claim 60wherein an amount by which scores of ads are adjusted is greater forexpress user topic interest than inferred user topic interest.
 62. Theapparatus of claim 56 wherein an amount by which scores of ads areadjusted is determined using, at least, a degree of user topic interestindicated by an observed monitored user action.
 63. The apparatus ofclaim 55 wherein the means for determining a user topic interestincludes means for determining user disinterest in a topic using useractions.
 64. The apparatus of claim 63 wherein user disinterest in atopic is determined if a user selects a link, is brought to a Web pageand returns back shortly.